New combination therapy for TB shows promise in Phase II study

"Results from a groundbreaking trial of three drugs given in combination -- one of them completely new and one not yet licensed for this use -- killed more than 99 percent of patients' [tuberculosis (TB)] bacteria after two weeks of treatment," and the combination "appears to be equally effective on drug-resistant TB," the Guardian reports (Boseley, 7/23). The combination "comprises a candidate TB drug called PA-824, the antibiotic moxifloxacin not yet approved for TB therapy, and an existing TB drug, pyrazinamide," Agence France-Presse writes, noting the combination is called PaMZ (7/23). "Because the combination doesn't contain isoniazid or rifampicin, the two main medicines used against TB, it also may provide a much-needed weapon against strains that fail to succumb to those drugs and are spreading, the researchers wrote," Bloomberg Businessweek reports (Bennett, 7/23). The Phase II study, which was presented on Monday at the International AIDS Conference in Washington and published in the Lancet, "needs to be confirmed in larger and longer trials," according to Reuters (Steenhuysen, 7/23).